One down, 99 more to go...

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One cleaned and organized shelf in the livingroom.

 Only 99 more spaces to go!

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De-cluttering

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I’ve started de-cluttering my house, which should be pretty easy, since a lot of it is junk. Sadly, I am not progressing as quickly as I want to. Why is that? Because of my thought processes. Yes, that’s right...the way my brain processes things is actually slowing me down. I need to justify (to myself) every decision to get rid of something.

Take, for example my fabric collection. I have some wonderfully quirky pieces that I bought for special projects years ago...projects that I procrastinated on for sooo long that my kids have actually outgrown them. Now, I am NOT going to save them for my “potential” grandchildren, but at the same time I don’t want to throw them out. I have quilting friends, who might want these pieces, but these are special pieces, and I doubt that they want to make quilts with “bug” fabric or “flame” fabric. So there they sit in my living room, because I refuse to throw out new, never-used material. Now multiply this dilemma x 50 and you see what I am up against.

Aha! I know of some lovely women who make children’s toys...maybe they can use them. See, if only I had started blogging about de-cluttering last year, I may have come up with solutions that would result in my house being clean and organized today.

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Re-thinking my thinking process...

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These last few weeks I have been rethinking a lot of my personal values.  Bob and I felt the Lord calling us to make some changes in our life.  Bob mentioned that he's felt God calling him to be more frugal.  I have been feeling the same way, but have been really struggling with the idea of frugality.  It's not that I'm opposed to "thrift" or that I don't want to be a good steward.  It's that the whole concept of "Frugality" somehow equates itself with deprivation.  When I was growing up, we didn't have a lot, and when I had young kids, we had even less, so the whole idea of "doing without" has been very stressful.  Then, out of the blue, I came across this wonderful term: "Voluntary Simplicity".   Volunteering to live a simpler life filled with those things that are important to us.  A simpler life that isn't cluttered with stuff that gets in the way of the important things, such as relationships with family and friends, time with God and cultivating a good attiude.  I need to reavaluate my homelife, my habit of collecting clutter, and even the way I spend my time.

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Changes

We've had a very busy fall.  In fact it was so busy, that Christmas was over before it even began.  Everything was scheduled so close together, that I was spending at least 3 nights out a week.  We had concerts to perform at, dinners to go to, church activities, and homeschool activities...and it didn't help that Erik picked up a part time job along the way.  Our home renovations basically ground to a halt during that time, and stuff started to pile up and take over our rebuilt area.  We used to store everything in Emily's bedroom, since she was away at school, but the week before she returned home for the holidays, we had to move it all into the mudroom.  There came a point where I just couldn't function anymore and I was ready to tear my hair out.  Too much stuff!
I am now in the process of trying to declutter.  At the same time, Bob and I have started a regualr time of devotions.  It has really helped to calm me down.  Lately, we have been wanting to store more food and have found an interesting program (which we are modifying to suit our life) where you spend an extra $5.00 a week, to build up emergency food stores.  Now, in case you are getting the wrong idea, I should clarify here that in no way are we becoming survivalists, nor can we put stock in stuff we accumulate to keep us "safe".  Only God alone can do that.  However, we have been feeling the need to be better stewards of what we have, and since we live out in the country and tend to have really bad blizzards and Bob does work a job that can be prone to occasional lay-offs, it would be nice to have a fully stocked pantry.  The last time Bob was laid off, we had quite a few groceries already, so we didn't need to buy anything except milk, eggs, cheese and lettuce, until he got his first unemployment cheque.  Since these cheques can take quite a while to come, it was a comfort not worrying about food.  I am also planning on doing a lot more cooking from scratch, which should be healthier and better for us.

Oooops!

It certainly has been a while since I've posted.  We were able to get more chickens and some of those chickens allowed themselves to get eaten by more racoons.  We managed to keep twelve of them alive and they are now butchered and sitting in my freezer.  They did tend to get pretty big...about the size of small turkeys.  Nice and tender! 

This summer was one of the businest ones we've had in a long time. We spent about every weekend working on the renovations, going to an SCA event or getting ready for Pennsic. 

The king and Queen of the East in a royal procession.



Erik fighting Oswin in a personal challenge match, after the Saracen vs Crusader battle.

For those of you who don't know what "Pennsic" is, picture 10800 medieval reenactors all together at a camp ground for up to two weeks, doing the following: fighting, fencing, dancing, singing, eating, shopping, camping, creating, shooting arrows, throwing weapons at targets, and socializing. It was sooo much fun, I want to do it again.

Erik finally got authorized to fight "Heavy list" (that is fight in armour with rattan weapons) at Great North Eastern War this summer.  He was the 6th youth fighter authorized, as they had just changed the rules to allow 17 year olds to fight.  This was unexpected, as previously, you had to be 18 years old to fight.  Needless to say, Erik has jumped into this sport with enthusiasm and focus.

Over the next few months, I am hoping to get some pictures up and catch up in all our happenings over the summer and early fall.